Main points
Other than practicing as much as possible, there are four presentation areas where I encourage people to focus their attention:
Practice, practice, practice
The three most important things you can do to guarantee that your presentation goes well is practice, practice, practice.
1. Eye contact
If you are presenting in a large room, look around the room and make eye contact with different individuals from time to time, for 2 or 3 seconds. If your presentation is virtual, eye contact means looking at the camera, not the computer screen.
2. Posture
Avoid crossing your arms or putting your hands in your pockets. Try to hold an open posture.
3. Gestures
Avoid using distracting gestures, like flipping your hair, touching your ear over and over, or something similar.
4. Filler words
Get rid of those elements you use to fill in the silent space between words, and which don’t add to the meaning of your presentation.
Three things that I recommend you do to keep your nerves under control when you present:
About a week before your presentation, spend 5-10 minutes, three times per day, visualizing your presentation going very well.
Speaking to yourself in a positive manner about the presentation that you have to give, starting about a week before you present.
Right before you present, take 3 to 6 deep breaths.
